THE ORDER OF THINGS
“An ethereal figure stood in the middle of the field on the first Saturday afternoon of summer. One by one, she instructed participants to take a deep breath before pouring a dark concoction of frankincense, Roman chamomile, rosewood, spruce, blue tansy, and lavender essential oils into their palms, instructing them rub their hands together, before imprinting them on a note card that turns into an artwork for the viewer to bring home. ‘It’s like the underbelly of a forest,’ said the goddess-like woman, the artist Lia Chavez.” — Forbes
The Order of Things (2020)
Healing Performance, 5.30
Presented by Good To Know.FYI and Jessica Hodin Lévy Bhumi Farms, East Hampton, New York
Set against the backdrop of the 2020 summer solstice at Bhumi Farms in East Hampton, New York, The Order of Things is a deeply personal and transformative performance that explored collective healing through the interconnection between the earthly and cosmic realms. In the foreground of the ritual, Chavez’s light sculpture—charting the motion of the sun—cast a radiant energy that anchored the celestial dimension of her work, subtly reflecting the profound forces at play in the performance.
This intimate, one-on-one healing experience invited participants to focus on the power within their own hands. Chavez guided participants through a sequence of contemplative visual meditations and breathwork, centering attention on the intricate fractal patterns inscribed within the palm. Participants were encouraged to recognize the cosmic energy that flows through them, with their hands as vessels of creation, healing, and transformation. Through the application of a specially formulated plant oil, their palms were stained in deep blue—revealing not only the fine lines of the hand but also activating pathways for mental clarity, emotional balance, and regenerative action.
The ritual, shaped by Chavez’s deep knowledge of the metaphysical and physical properties of plants, emphasized the innate potential each person carries. Guided by the ancient wisdom of botanical essences, the performance became a reflection on the ability to heal, to tend, and to co-create with the living world. “The wise hand moves through the world to cultivate, for it understands that it reaps what it gives,” Chavez explains, inviting participants to see their hands as conduits of cosmic intelligence and creative power.
“Chavez advances art history by looking backward—back toward the throbbing sincerity of the abstract expressionists decades before, and, thanks to her admiration of medieval and Renaissance artists, further back still. Her work is all about tracing inspiration to its roots and discovering, like Jackson Pollock, that we ‘are nature,’ that all of us ‘are nature,’ and that inspiration comes from the simultaneously earthly and divine sources at the heart of Being.” – Image Journal
As she shared her two-decade-long practice of botanical alchemy with an audience for the first time, Chavez invited each participant to embrace the regenerative wisdom gifted by nature. Presented as part of the Infinite Seed exhibition, the work reaffirmed the unity between the microcosm of the human and the macrocosm of the universe—offering a felt encounter with the potential for healing, creation, and transformation held in our own hands.
The Order of Things became an invitation to experience the body as a site of revelation, the hand as oracle, and the self as an agent in the great renewal of life.